Get Corporate Sponsorship -The Ultimate How To Guide

$11.61

Translating all that I’ve learned from paper into practice made a significant difference in my fundraising and has helped me raise millions of dollars through corporate sponsorship — even during a bad economy.

If your organization seeks better results, needs coaching, or a roadmap to jump-start your corporate sponsorship program, I would love the opportunity to potentially save your organization thousands of dollars and countless labor hours. On the next page, you’ll get the chance to buy the book—which outlines step by step instruction for how I’ve raised over $80 million dollars to date…….

More than 88% of corporations contribute to charitable causes, organizations and brands yet many organizations are unsure about the best ways to develop a prospect list, prepare a proposal, approach a corporate prospect face to face, and ultimately persuade a corporation to support them.

Now, I want you to imagine with me for a moment that you have not been feeling well and decide to visit your doctor. When you arrive, he or she rushes you into the office and writes you a prescription without ever asking questions about what’s ailing you. What would you think about your doctor’s competence and ethics if that happened? While this is an extreme scenario, it’s in this same fashion that many nonprofit organizations approach corporate sponsorship when they pitch blind proposals to an unqualified prospect list. Then they wait and wonder why they got so many rejection letters — or even worse — never heard back about proposals they sent out.

I’ve fundraised in the nonprofit sector for the last 20 years, and I’m guilty of using this same approach. For a long time I was convinced that if I had a sleek proposal and a good pitch letter, the corporations I solicited would see that my organization was deserving of sponsorship, and just give us money … right?

My process was grueling. I would research for hours and find hundreds of sponsorship prospects. Next, I’d spend money on graphic design, print, and postage. And for hours, staff would help stuff envelopes and get the proposals out the door. Then I would wait. After a few weeks of waiting, the rejection letters would begin to arrive. Each time I got a rejection letter, I’d get a little more discouraged and think: there has to be a better way to raise corporate sponsorship. Now don’t get me wrong, every now and then I’d raise a few thousand dollars from a sponsor using my approach, get encouraged, and think I was on the right track. But a few years ago, I sat down and calculated the TRUE COST of my sponsorship approach and it changed everything.

Here’s what I discovered:

50 hours of prospect research between me and my assistant…………………………………….$2,400

Graphic design of the proposal packet…………………………………………………………………….$2,500

Printing of 500 proposal packets…………………………………………………………………………….$3,000

Four staff members working 2+ days to assemble and prepare packets for mailing………$1,250

Mailed 400 packets @ $ 1.50 each………………………………………………………………………… $ 600

SPENT: $ 11,190

RAISED: $ 1,900

LOST: $ 9,290

That day, I knew I had to change something. Working in the nonprofit sector, I’m always looking for ways to work smarter, to do things correctly the first time, and to use donations responsibly. Each time I sit down to spend money on behalf of an organization; I try to remind myself that it’s not my money I’m spending. After my cost calculation, I was on a quest to secure sponsorship in a more strategic way.

I spoke to people in the know. I connected with marketing, community relations, and corporate foundation directors at corporations. And found many were willing to give me candid feedback about why some proposals are funded and others are not.

Then I decided to write a book. I spoke to marketing, community relations, and corporate foundation directors at corporations and found that many of them were willing to give me candid feedback about why some proposals are funded and others are not. I also interviewed dozens of nonprofit leaders across the country to discover what was and wasn’t working as their organizations sought corporate sponsors. Last, I attended workshops, read books, and studied countless solicitation methods to learn and master the true best practices of securing corporate sponsorship.

I also continued to learn from colleagues like *Emily.

Emily is the Executive Director of a small nonprofit that works with youth in Philadelphia. In the fall of 2016, her organization received a letter from its biggest foundation sponsor. The foundation had lost assets. In turn, Emily’s organization lost funding of $150,000. This represented 40% of her budget.

To help fill the funding gap, Emily was up for trying something she’d not tried in the past. She officially launched a campaign to solicit funding other corporations. In three weeks time, Emily created a list of corporate prospects from a local Chamber of Commerce directory, crafted a request letter and proposal, and sent out 64 proposal packages to local corporations.

Then she waited.

By the spring of 2016, five proposals had been returned due to a bad address, 21 corporations rejected the organization’s proposal, and Emily had not heard from the remaining 38 corporations she solicited.

Haveyouexperienceda similar scenario?

According to the National Center for Charitable Statistics, more than 1.5 million nonprofit organizations are registered in the U.S. And most of them depend heavily on and charitable giving.

So what separates the chosen organizations from the ones, like Emily’s organization–that doesn’t even get a callback? What do they do differently? And most importantly:

SO….

Translating all that I’ve learned from paper into practice made a significant difference in my fundraising and has helped me raise millions of dollars through corporate sponsorship — even during a bad economy.

If your organization seeks better results, needs coaching, or a roadmap to jump-start your corporate sponsorship program, I would love the opportunity to potentially save your organization thousands of dollars and countless labor hours. On the next page, you’ll get the chance to buy the book—which outlines step by step instruction for how I’ve raised over $80 million dollars to date…….

Related products

With timely and relevant blogposts and articles to video content that provides step-by-step instruction, Get Corporate Sponsorship educates you on every aspect of the sponsorship process through our articles free and paid content and courses.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.